Environment Environment Establishment and Management of Funding Agreements

‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ ANAO Report No.10 2014–15 Administration of the Biodiversity Fund Program 95 program, or one of a range of established methods. 137 The department also encourages all Round 1 grant recipients, particularly those funded to a value of 500 000 or more, to use its methodology or one of the established models.

6.38 Environment

informed the ANAO that, as at August 2014, 55 Biodiversity Fund program projects 16.5 per cent of the total 334 funded projects, and 35 per cent of the 156 Biodiversity Fund program projects funded at 500 000 or more had provided at least one vegetation assessment using either the Biodiversity Fund Ecological Monitoring Guide or one of the other approved methodologies. 138 However, only 12 of the 21 total Round 2 and NATI projects had reported using these methodologies, as is required although the department advised that the remaining projects were appropriately reporting on ‘vegetation condition and the impact of the Biodiversity Fund program investment’, via other information collected through MERIT. Overall, there is scope for Environment to improve the implementation of the ecological monitoring methodologies underpinning the MERI reporting framework. Environment has advised that grant managers are receiving training to identify whether the reports submitted by grant recipients are appropriately applying the ecological monitoring methodology. Departmental approval of reports

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key ongoing task for the Biodiversity Fund program grant managers has been the review and acceptance of the mid‐year and annual reports. When mid ‐year and annual reports are submitted to Environment they are reviewed against a checklist that: identifies whether all required information has been submitted; whether the grant recipient has completed the activities and met targets set out in the project plan or MERI plan; and includes a recommendation on whether the report should be accepted and the relevant milestone payment released. This process often involves follow‐up communications between the grant manager and grant recipient, including requests for further information to be submitted. 137 The Biodiversity Fund Ecological Monitoring Guide, or previously established ecological reporting methodologies: Habitat Hectares; BioMetric: Terrestial Biodiversity Tool; BioCondition; TasVeg: Tasmanian Vegetation Condition Assessment Method; Bushland Condition Monitoring; and Native Vegetation Condition Assessment and Monitoring for WA. These methods are widely used in stateterritory and local government jurisdictions for environmental reporting, and would be familiar to many grant recipients, such as NRM Boards, catchment management authorities, state and local government authorities, and some Landcare groups. 138 The department advised that further refinements to MERIT will allow recipients to identify which of the seven approved methodologies they have used for their vegetation assessments. ANAO Report No.10 2014–15 Administration of the Biodiversity Fund Program 96

6.40 The